[Terrapreta] Sustained Biochar

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david

what a beautiful letter... knowledge of life in soil - is so much like
knowledge of what 'field' effect makes life in buildings
(in both case organic materials are key - and that may be defineable
electrically

as in our biologic architecture conference...
we should bring david to our mexico university conference on biologic 
architecture...

www.goldenmean.info/course
www.goldenmean.info/architecture

sorry we have been out of touch

warmly

dan winter

www.goldenmean.info
thanks for keeping me informed...


David Yarrow wrote:
> thanks, jon, for bringing up the primacy of soil in these 
> discussions about greenhouse gases, global warming and climate 
> change.  most of all charcoal is about nurturing the microbes in 
> soil.  this key fact of geobiological reality consistently is 
> overlooked, ignored, discounted, underrated, and left out of 
> calculations and schemes.
>  
> since the beginning of evolution on earth, it is most of all the least 
> of all living things -- the micro-organism in the the thin skin of sea 
> and soil -- that have created, regulated and sustained the composition 
> of the earth's atmosphere.  more recently in evolution, the plants -- 
> especially trees as forests -- have supplemented the effort of 
> microbes to stabilize the earth's atmosphere.
>  
> if we want to restore the earth and stabilize climate, we most of all 
> need to not just sequester carbon, but regenerate the living biomass 
> in soil.  when i teach soil fertility, i emphasize it is about feeding 
> the soil, not the plants.  if we create living soil, the 
> micro-organisms that feed the larger, more complex life forms.  the 
> real secret of terra preta isn't the carbon or charcoal, it's the 
> microbes.  carbon is a critical food for microbes, and charcoal is a 
> storehouse for nutrients and housing for their complex communities.
>  
> and today, all soils are damaged.  far too much of the once living 
> soil has been abused and reduced to inert dirt.  in debates and 
> discussions about climate change and what to do, i read all this 
> fanatical fixation on emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes -- and 
> forest fires -- which are obvious.  but hardly anyone recognizes and 
> assesses the fumes rising off deforested land, off of a plowed field 
> -- especially after it is drenched in toxic, soluble chemicals.  and 
> every year, millions of acres of farmland are dumping grounds for 
> soluble chemicals, beginning most of all with volatile nitrogen 
> -- all which outgas, mostly as assorted oxides -- all potent 
> greenhouse gases.  but those fumes are invisible, ignored by the 
> average observer, discounted by most scientists, and thus uncounted.
>  
> worse than the fumes, the soil life -- the living biomass -- is 
> killed, mutated and decimated.  the land cannot live, breathe, absorb, 
> store nutrients, and feed the plants and all else.
>  
> and even worse for our economy, buying and spreading all those 
> chemicals puts farmers into perpetual debt.
>  
> but if anyone like jeff who doesn't believe man has affected and is 
> destabilizing the earth's climate takes time to study aerial and 
> satelllite photos, it quickly is obvious that in the last few 
> centuries, vast areas of land -- a tremendous percentage of earth's 
> surface -- has been stripped of ancient, complex forest community 
> ecosystems, and left bare and exposed to sun, wind, rainwater, 
> weather, and other degrading processes.  even land that looks forested 
> is covered by second and third growth trees that are weak, scraggly 
> and struggling.
>  
> and all those photos show is the loss of tree cover.  they don't make 
> plain the degradation, destruction and eventual sterilization of soil 
> -- the conversion of living biomass into inert dirt.
>  
> here in the finger lakes, the best soil is now on the bottom of the 
> lakes. early settlers clearcut the trees, plowed up and down the 
> slopes, and rain wased the rich forest soils down ravines into the 
> lakes.  seneca and cayuga lakes that were once over 1200 feet deep and 
> 35+ miles long are now charted as only 700-900 feet deep.  the 
> difference is all the rich fertile forest silt now sitting as mud on 
> the lake bottoms.
>  
> in parallel processes, estuaries and subsea alluvial outwashes of 
> watersheds -- such as the bottom of the gulf of mexico beyond the 
> mouth of the mississippi -- have become huge dead zones because of 
> these toxic industrial farm chemicals and destructured soils.  and the 
> waters are polluted with red tides, algae blooms and other biological 
> chaos, which -- when they die and decay en masse -- outgas more 
> greenhouse gases such as methyl sulfoxide.  perhaps half of the sulfur 
> in the earth's atmosphere is a consequence of the methyl sulfoxide 
> emitted by decaying algae and organisms in coastal waterways.
>  
> so, again, the most critical consequence of the terra preta strategy 
> of adding charcoal (and other currently uncertain ingredients) to soil 
> is to restart and stimulate an explosion of microbial life.  not some 
> chaotic eruption -- but the establishment of stable, complex, fully 
> functional communities of all the wee beasties needed to put in place 
> the soil food web that is the foundation of all else the springs from 
> the soil.
>  
> thanks again, jon, for refocusing the discussion.  hopefully soon 
> we will respect just how much we depend on the least of all life forms 
> for our increasingly precarious existence.
>  
> David Yarrow
> "If yer not forest, yer against us."
> Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary
> 44 Gilligan Road, East Greenbush, NY 12061
> dyarrow at nycap.rr.com <mailto:dyarrow at nycap.rr.com>
> www.championtrees.org <http://www.championtrees.org>
> www.OnondagaLakePeaceFestival.org 
> <http://www.OnondagaLakePeaceFestival.org>
> www.citizenre.com/dyarrow/ <http://www.citizenre.com/dyarrow/>
> www.farmandfood.org <http://www.farmandfood.org>
> www.SeaAgri.com <http://www.SeaAgri.com>
>  
> "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times,
> if one only remembers to turn on the light." 
> -Albus Dumbledore
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Jon C. Frank <mailto:jon.frank at aglabs.com>
>     *To:* Terrapreta <mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
>     *Sent:* Thursday, August 30, 2007 11:45 AM
>     *Subject:* Re: [Terrapreta] Sustained Biochar
>
>     The main issue is the global degradation of soil.  This is the
>     issue where man has altered the environment with such devastating
>     affects.  Trying to correct atmospheric issues without correcting
>     the underlying causes is like a dog chasing its' tail.
>      
>     My interest in Terrapreta stems from my interest in soil
>     restoration.  Terrapreta can play an important role in restoring
>     soil.  It is not the only thing needed but it can be a key component.
>      
>     You mentioned quality of life.  This is very important.  The
>     biggest impact on quality of life comes from eating foods with
>     high nutrient density.  This is a primary end goal for soil
>     restoration.
>

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